What is Affiliate Marketing & FAQ

Whenever I publish my income report or share how I earn money with my blog, I often use the term “affiliate marketing”. Bloggers and internet marketers who have been into online marketing for years are familiar with affiliate marketing, and also with the fact that it is the most lucrative way to earn money online.

In this article, I will share the basics of affiliate marketing and all the details you need to know in order to understand how affiliate marketing works.

Affiliate Marketing Explained: What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing wherein you refer someone to any online product and when that person buys the product based on your recommendation, you receive a commission.

This commission varies from $1 to $10,000 depending on what product you are promoting.

The most common question I hear is related to how companies track the record of who is sending the traffic and making the sales. The simple answer is with a tracking URL (a unique link given to you by the affiliate company or product company).

This URL is used to keep track of all the traffic and sales you are making via your website or other promotional techniques. Many old-fashioned affiliate programs allow a buyer to add the email or referral details in an effort to account for affiliate sales, but this is certainly not the best way to track progress.

Many online companies who sell products such as shoes, web-hosting spaces, or some other service, usually offer anaffiliate program. You can simply sign up for the program and get your unique tracking link. Now, whenever you are writing about their product, you can simply use this special tracking affiliate link to recommend the company’s site.

If your readers buy anything, you will get a commission.

Every affiliate program has a set TOS. For example, many of them offer a 60-day cookie period, which means that if a visitor uses your special affiliate link to land on the sales page of the site and buys something within the next 60 days, you will be entitled to the sale’s commission.

Here are some of the common terms associated with affiliate marketing:

Affiliates: Publishers like you and me who are using affiliate program links to promote and make sales.

Affiliate marketplace: There are many marketplaces like Shareasale, CJ, and Clickbank. These work as central databases for affiliate programs in different niches.

Affiliate software: Software used by companies to create an affiliate program for their product.

Affiliate Manager/OPM: Many companies have dedicated affiliate managers to help publishers earn more by giving them optimization tips.

Commission percentage/amount: The amount or percentage you will be receiving in affiliate income from every sale.

2-tier affiliate marketing: This is a great way of making money from an affiliate program. With this method, you recommend that others join affiliate programs, and you receive a commission when a sub-affiliate makes a sale (similar to MLM or multi-level marketing). This income is also known as a sub-affiliate commission.

Custom affiliate income/account: Unlike a generic affiliate account, many companies offer custom affiliate income to people making the most affiliate sales for them.

Link clocking: Most of the affiliate tracking links are ugly. Using a link clocking technique like URL shorteners, Thirsty Affiliates, etc., you can turn ugly links into links that can be read and understood by your readers.

Custom coupons: Many programs allow affiliates to create custom coupons which are also used to track sales. Custom discount coupons help you to increase affiliate sales as well.

For companies offering an affiliate program, this is one of the best ways to receive free promotion, thus saving substantially on advertising.

For example, whenever you see coupons or discount links, most of the time these are affiliate links, and when you make a purchase, webmasters make money.

Affiliate Marketing :: FAQ

At this point, you should have a basic understanding of what affiliate marketing is and how it works. If you have any questions regarding any of this, you can always ask me in the comments section below.

Now, let me answer some of the common questions asked by webmasters and marketers about affiliate marketing:

Is affiliate marketing harmful or illegal?

No, it is neither harmful nor illegal, as you will simply be using the particular link provided to you rather than a direct link to link to any site.

Yes, you can because affiliate marketing does not violate any Adsense TOS. In fact, for me, affiliate marketing works better than Adsense, and that is one reason you see fewer AdSense ads here at ShoutMeLoud.

How do I find an affiliate link for any product?

Not all companies offer an affiliate program, of course, but for those that do offer affiliate programs, you can check their website for related information. When searching, be sure to check the company’s FAQ page if they have one.

Another way find this information is to do a simple Google search. For example, one could place the following phrase into Google Search: “(product name) + affiliate program”. (Replace “product name” with the name of the product you are promoting.)

This should bring you to a landing page. Many companies use an affiliate marketplace like ShareASale, CJ, or Clickbank. These arefree to use and you can create a free account.

How do I find new products to promote?

Affiliate marketplaces such as those mentioned above are the best places to start your affiliate marketing research. You can browse your niche and see the top performing affiliate programs.

Alternatively, you can keep an eye on blogs in your niche and see which products they are promoting and what methods they are using.

Is it important to have a blog for affiliate promotion?

Not necessarily, but a blog is really the best promotional tool. With that said, you can always use methods such as PPC or advertising to promote a product. This is more like hit-and-run affiliate marketing, however. The best way to make the most out of your affiliate marketing opportunities is to have a blog and use it for hard and soft promotion.

How much does it cost to join an affiliate program?

There is no charge for joining an affiliate program, however, your total cost depends on what promotion technique you are using. For example, a blog post doesn’t cost a dime, but PPC marketing, email marketing, and advertising come with various price tags.

What qualifications do I need to become an affiliate marketer?

There is literally no qualification required to become an affiliate marketer, though having good copywriting skills and marketing skills will be an added advantage.

Are there programs available which automatically converts links into affiliate links?

There are a few networks like Viglink and Skimlinks which automatically convert normal links into affiliate links. They use Javascript so it’s SEO friendly, and you do not need to sign up for an individual affiliate program.

How much money can one make from affiliate marketing?

As I mentioned above, there is no limit to the amount of money you can earn from affiliate programs. It all depends on which program you’re promoting and how many conversion you are making. I started with $47 as my first affiliate income, and now I make almost $4k-5K/month by promoting products which I use every day.

Alright, I now understand what affiliate marketing is all about. How do I get started?

Here at ShoutMeLoud, I and many guest authors have covered some of the best guides to help you to understand in depth about getting started, and some of the pros and cons. Here is a list from our affiliate marketing archive which will help you to get started:

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A blog scientist by the mind and a passionate blogger by heart ❤️. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud (Award winning blog), speaker at various international forums.
Life motto: Live while you can! Teach & inspire while you could & Smile while you have the teeth.

Thanks for sharing info on affiliate marketing. Learned a lot. I have been an affiliate for some programs but never made success with the same mainly because I haven’t done it right. Also,traffic on your site needs to be really good and targeted to make things work. Need to work on traffic first and then can think about affiliate marketing.

You are really great, who is supporting with providing and sharing your knowledge to the globe, and thank you very much for your all efforts.

I have over 20 years professional experience in many positions. I am very hard worker and energetic personality. Recently I am interested making money in online. I am going to start from scratch. Do you think I can success ?

My over 20 years professional experience in (1) Marketing & Sales (2) Business Development (3) Contracts Management (4) Legal Management and (5) Project management with international company in Telecommunication, Law Firms and Construction company. I am also very good in English writing ( I don’t claim I am super but good enough).

Your blog impress me lots, where found lots of technique including name of the Affiliate networks. I have one question, which marketing tools is better for Affiliate Marketing ? (1) Blogging (2) Email marketing (3) Whatsapp marketing ? Any other tools ? Can you please write something about Whatsapp markeing ? Thanks

Your Blog were very helpful to everyone who is interested in affiliate marketing. But due to having lots of tools as an option , I get so much confused. Actually I am working as an email marketing specialist. And I want to start Affiliate marketing. I have List of email IDs as a resource for now. I want to promote the products by Email Marketing. Can you please guide me which tool would be suitable for my need? What more things do i need to be affiliate marketer and how can i do it?

I have become an affiliate for amazon products.Please suggest other except amazon to do affiliate marketing for best commissions. Please also suggest best ways except website to earn a descent income. I will be waiting for your reply as I have been learning a lot from your blog since several years..

Hello, Maggie…!
No, you don’t need to buy anything.
Let’s clear it with a day-to-day life example.
Suppose you have opened a shop and selling something. One day one of your friend came to you and said – I want to earn some money in part time, can you help me for that…?
And you said, – Sell my few products and I will give you a few amount of money earned through your sell.
So here, your friend doesn’t need to purchase your product first. The same things happend while you are selling online using affiliate marketing technique. You get some percentage of the amount as a commission only if the products sold out by clicking on your affiliate link by any process, whether by Facebook, blogging, sharing whatever….

I agree with the second last comment that affiliate marketing is a great way to learn especially when dealing with informational products niche.

I would also add that the best way to improve ones strategies and conversions are not by studying the courses that we buy and review, but by carefully observing how the sellers we buy from actually sell to us and then model off of that.

For example, I might find a top selling course on click bank that I actually want to buy and when I buy it I can study all of the sales pages and up sells. I’ve found that I have learned much more from doing this than any actual courses. 🙂

That’s quite an excellent article on affiliate marketing – I am a nascent affiliate marketer myself and this is a good reference point.

You speak about legality – I would like to understand one thing. UK and European Bookmakers also offer Affiliate marketing as an option using the same concept (you promote them and they pay you some percentage of the revenue they earn). Would you be able to say that’s legal in India, i.e. can a website in India promote a British bookmaker without falling afoul of the law?

Hi Just started off with my first blog(wordpress), that involves aggressive use of affiliate links, mostly of amazon.
My concern regarding those affiliate links is that, how should i block those links from google crawlers?
Somehow through robots.txt or any other medium?
If it is through robots.txt, then how?

One thing I want to know if I have an affiliate link of a shoe and anyone go through my link on the product site and purchase any other product in place of the shoe, then will i get commission for that purchased product?

hey, harsh,
if I sign up for affiliate programs like ShareASale & CJ from country “A” and if some of my reader from country “B” buy some products/service through my affiliate link, in such case, will I have a commission or not?

as I am new for affiliate and once I saw your video interview where you have mentioned such things ( in case of Amazon)….so same thing apply for cj& ShareASale ??

Affiliate marketing is totally a new concept for me but after reading your article its quite clear that how we can publish ads on other websites on our own blog and earn money with affiliate marketing. Need some more updates on those and will read your future posts too. Once again thanks @Harsh for sharing such blog!!